See this excellent article from the St. Pete
Times on the many church groups, Faith and Community-based
organizations that are very vigorously responding to Florida’s
hurricanes….with all of us now carefully watching Ivan.
We will provide an update on workforce status and activities
by end of week. We already know that the National Emergency
Grant (NEG) providing temporary jobs to help with cleanup
and humanitarian aid (such as described in this article)
has been extended to all Florida counties/Regional Workforce
Boards. More later.
By SHARON TUBBS, Times Staff Writer
Published September 9, 2004
The Southern Baptists get to the disaster site early with chain saws
and mobile kitchens. Lutherans come ready to counsel the weary. The
Methodists arrive later. They're in it for the long haul, three to
five years.
When disaster strikes - and strikes again, in Florida's
case - relief efforts cross all faiths. But some denominations
have carved their own niches in disaster relief, gaining
reputations as the go-to denomination for certain tasks.
The American Red Cross counts on Southern Baptists to be "initial
responders," for instance. The Baptists bull their way
through ravaged areas in trucks with tools and ham radios
just as the storm subsides. Along with the Salvation Army,
they supply food and cook thousands of hot meals for victims.
In any denomination, individual churches and members are
free to volunteer however they choose. But on the national
or state level, efforts are likely organized in conjunction
with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Red
Cross or coalitions such as National Voluntary Organizations
Active in Disaster and Church World Service. Most denominations
organize cleanup efforts and donations for victims. Some,
however, have one or two additional areas of disaster specialty.
Southern Baptists were cooking chicken and dumplings, corn
and green beans in Central Florida within two days of Hurricane
Charley. They had made more than 1-million meals there by
the time Frances tore through Florida. Baptists moved to
the east coast early this week to feed victims of Hurricane
Frances, said the Rev. Tommy Green, president of the Florida
Baptist Convention and pastor of First Baptist Church of
Brandon.
Baptists started feeding victims in 1967 when Hurricane
Beulah tore through the Texas coast. Men used skills they
learned in camp to make hot meals. With each disaster after
that, Baptists rounded up members to cook, said Mickey Caison,
manager of adult volunteer mobilization for the Southern
Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board. Soon,
it was what they were expected to do.
Other groups also started out filling voids.
Federal agencies call the Church of the Brethren, a Christian
denomination that focuses on peace, for help in areas with
lots of children. The church sets up child care services
in FEMA and Red Cross centers where parents apply for assistance,
a process that can mean waiting hours in long lines. The
kids play games and do activities that help relieve stress,
such as painting, said Helen Stonesifer, who coordinates
the program from her office in New Windsor, Md.
About two-dozen volunteers have operated four child care
centers in Central Florida in the wake of Hurricane Charley.
They rotate, working two-week shifts, but evacuated as Frances
approached. About half have returned to centers in Kissimmee,
Orlando, Englewood and Wauchula, Stonesifer said. She said
FEMA representatives are assessing whether they'll need more
facilities and child care workers for east coast victims
of Frances.
The program began in 1980 when a church member was helping
builders during another disaster. He saw children standing
in lines with frustrated parents and encouraged his denomination
to fill the need.
Since Charley, Stonesifer said, "We received a report
from Florida that several children are painting black houses." The
houses symbolize their trauma.
A few decades ago, Seventh-day Adventists decided to oversee
warehouses that store donated goods, such as the regional
response center at the Florida State Fairgrounds that opened
after Charley. People from various faiths work in the warehouses,
but Seventh-day members typically manage them.
"It was a needed service," said Sung Kwon, executive
director for Adventist Community Services in Silver Spring,
Md. "It's very difficult and labor-intensive."
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance offers emotional and spiritual
counseling. The church created a disaster assistance team
with trained counselors across the country. Team members
train ministers and church members in disaster areas. In
turn, those church leaders can counsel people in their own
communities, said Stan Hankins, the church's associate for
U.S. disaster response.
Volunteers counseled several pastors and lay Presbyterians
in Central Florida whose homes and churches were damaged
by Charley. That hurricane did harm to more Presbyterian
properties than any other disaster he could remember in the
past 10 years, Hankins said. Frances hit many of those same
victims, he said. The church planned to dispatch more volunteers
to Central Florida this week.
Lutheran Disaster Response organizes mental health and spiritual
counseling. Its mental health counselors help victims cope
with stress and depression, said Heather Feltman, the disaster
response's executive director in Chicago. It counsels people
in shelters and others sent by referral.
Spiritual counselors act as chaplains ministering to people
who want faith-based care. If someone requests a different
type of religious counselor - a rabbi, for instance - the
counselor tries to locate one.
"It's just kind of coalesced (over the years)," Feltman
said about Lutherans' disaster work with other religious
groups. "It's been kind of like a symphony being put
together. Where do people have their best assets?"
Lutherans and the United Church of Christ also repair or
rebuild things for victims when money from insurance and
federal agencies isn't enough to cover their losses.
Working in the field of "unmet needs" seemed natural
for the UCC, said Bill Wealand, the disaster ministry coordinator
for UCC's Florida Conference.
Members noticed that people were still asking for help months
after disasters hit, many of them coming to UCC churches
across the country seeking money or volunteer help.
In Florida, groups of about 60 UCC volunteers stay for a
few weeks or months, before another group comes to relieve
them. They pay their own expenses. Some are professional
builders and carpenters offering free labor.
The Methodists used trial and error in deciding what needs
their denomination should meet. At one time, they tried being
initial responders, said Kristin Sachen, an assistant general
secretary for the United Methodist Committee on Relief.
But it was hard for Methodists to be "the chain saw
gang," she said. "To go in and do the very early
disaster response takes a different system than the Methodists
have, I think."
Each Methodist church and region is interconnected, unlike
Southern Baptists who are largely independent. Rallying Methodist
volunteers quickly from across the country is tough because
communications have to go through so many channels, Sachen
said.
"It was the big floods in the Midwest (1993) that we
really learned how to do case management," Sachen said.
Now, the Committee on Relief trains people to be case managers.
They help set up offices in devastated areas to assess victims'
long-term needs. They offer grants for housing and other
expenses. The committee is working with the Methodist Church's
Florida Conference to set up long-term offices for Charley's,
and potentially Frances', victims. Once they settle in, Methodists
expect to stay three to five years.
Methodist case managers are still working in New York with
victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks - three years after
the fact, Sachen said.
Long-term work fits the Methodists style. "It's the
way we do things," Sachen said, "having the patience
to be the last one out."
-- Sharon Tubbs can be reached at 727 892-2253 or tubbs@sptimes.com
